Wedding Bells at Goodwill House by Fenella J Miller

Author:Fenella J Miller [Miller, Fenella J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books

Joanna posted the letter and then trudged through the snow to purchase the various items Jean had asked for. She’d caught the midday bus and didn’t intend to stay long in Ramsgate but return on the next one which left at two.

It was cold and a few flakes of snow brushed her cheeks. Thank goodness she’d finished her errands and could make her way to the bus. She was at the bus stop when the sirens howled.

A woman with a bulging shopping bag grabbed her arm. ‘This way, down the tunnels. We’ll be safe down there.’

Joanna knew about these underground shelters, knew that hundreds of people left homeless after the bombing last August were now living permanently in them, but she’d not visited herself.

There was now a stream of people heading for the nearest entrance. The steps were steep, seemed to go down for ever, and she was glad to have the metal banister to hold on to. There was no need to dig out her torch from her handbag as these tunnels were lit by electricity. No one seemed unduly flustered and all appeared to know where to go.

‘This way, love, there’s a caf, a bog and everything down here. Safe as houses it is,’ the kind woman who’d directed her to the tunnel, said.

Houses above ground were certainly not anywhere one would want to be right now, but Joanna smiled and thanked her temporary companion.

There were benches on one side of the tunnel and she decided to sit on one not wishing to venture any deeper into this maze of passageways. There were signposts, street names and so on as if this was indeed a genuine village. Being deep underground, although safe, wasn’t something she enjoyed. The walls and ceiling seemed to be pressing in on her.

‘Lady Harcourt, I never expected to meet you in these tunnels.’

The woman who had sat next to her was the doctor’s housekeeper, Mary Brown.

‘Mrs Brown, good afternoon. Were you heading for the bus as I was when the sirens went off?’

‘No, I’m visiting my sister. I was just fetching a few bits the doc needs and was on my way back to Sylvie’s. She’ll be down here somewhere but it’s a rabbit warren and I’ll not find her.’ She smiled. ‘It’s ever so clever what they’ve done down here, isn’t it? Not that I’d want to live underground all the time like some folk, but better than nothing, I suppose.’

Something small landed on Joanna’s gloved hands. She looked down and then up. It was a flake of plaster from the tunnel roof. Did this mean a bomb had dropped directly above them?

She stared nervously at the ceiling, watching for further flakes to fall. The bench shook. They were showered with plaster again.

‘Blimey O’Riley, that was a big one,’ Mary said. For a second or two, the tunnel was quiet, as if all present were holding their breath. There was a further vibration that ran along the wall behind her.

Then nothing else. Everyone

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